The 10 Best Sales Movies You MUST Watch

 

Did you know that exploring the best sales movies and best sales films in your interactions, offers not only entertainment but also valuable lessons in persuasion and strategy?

We’re big film fans in the office and any new salesperson (or member of staff come to that) that starts with MTD, I always grill them as to the movies they’ve seen about sales.

“Have you watched Glengarry Glen Ross? Have you watched Boiler Room?” The list goes on!

So, I thought I’d compile my best sales movies of all time.

I’ve also excluded both Wall Street films. Yes, they are my favourites, but every list seems to have them in so I’m assuming they’re a given. There are also 2 movies where you don’t have to watch the whole movie, but I have embedded the clip below that you MUST watch from it.

There’s also some in this list which are a little left field too.

I warn you there’s lots of the “F” word in the videos and don’t expect to find them on any Sales Training that we run.

How many of these movies have you seen?

1.    Boiler Room

You want the hard sell?

You got it with this film.

This is about an ambitious young stock broker who bulldozers his clients into buying stock from him and his firm.

Check out the clip below of where the firms recruiter (Ben Affleck) holds a group interview. Just love this scene!

2.    Glengarry Glen Ross

This includes an all-star cast including Pacino, Spacey, Baldwin, Lemon and so on!

It’s about a group of middle aged sales people and the trials and tribulations that they go through on a weekly basis.

Check out this sales meeting below.

I hope your sales manager is not like Alec Baldwin!

3.    Two For The Money

This is a film that is often passed over but I love it.

Matthew McConaughey sells sports betting tips over the phone for a company owned by Al Pacino.

Pacino head hunts McConaughey and makes him the main man at the firm.

Soon the pressure is on as his tips need to come good.

Here’s a scene below where McConaughey asks for more commission from Pacino – I think the response will surprise you!

4.    The Wolf Of Wall Street

A new favourite of mine!

Complete hard sell, ball breaking sales!

Probably goes against everything I stand for as a sales person but I love it! I just love the energy of the film and what they had in the firm.

Here’s a scene where Jordan Belfort (The Wolf) asks his team to “Sell me this pen!”

Quality!

5.    The Goods – Live Hard, Sell Hard

This movie is about sales people in a car dealership doing what it takes to make quota.

It’s a really funny film with a lot of home truths and not so home truths about the stereotypical sales industry.

In this scene below, the sales manager is shredding the photos of a sales person’s family saying they are too fat to be on show in front of a potential customer and that he needs to find photos of skinny kids so they feel sorry for him and give him the sale!

6.    Any Given Sunday

Ok, so this film has nothing to do with sales – it’s about an American Football Team.

But it makes my top 10 because of the motivational speech that Al Pacino gives to his losing team at half time.

Should you watch the whole movie? Damn right. It’s great and fast paced.

Here’s Pacino’s motivational speech. It’s awesome.

7.    The Pursuit Of Happyness

A heart-warming film of a salesman (Will Smith) who just doesn’t give up despite so many setbacks and knock backs

Check out this scene below where he finally gets a chance at a firm and how he approaches his cold calling and his mindset behind how he can make more calls than anyone else.

Really great piece.

8.    Rocky Balboa

The biggest lesson I took from this movie was the line “Life aint about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done”

WOW!

I just loved this.

Ok, so I’m a huge Rocky fan anyhow. I’ve got posters and signed autographs in my office at home but you just got to watch this scene below where Rocky tells his son he’s worth more.

9.    Moneyball

Once again this has nothing to do with sales but everything to do with winning.

Billy Beane (played fantastically well by Brad Pitt) is the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics. A bottom of the league baseball team with no hopes.

With the help of a Harvard Graduate he looks into the science of winning Baseball games after he loses all of his best players.

This is actually a true story and changed the way clubs were run in the future.

You can take a lot from this film about making the way that you sell more scientific in terms of the percentages and your sales process. I know I took a lot out of this movie which helped me and got me to look at things in a different way.

In this scene below Beane is running a meeting with his team of scouts where he spells out that they need to think differently to succeed.

10. Jerry Maguire

“Show me the money” enough said!

Our prospects and clients get us jumping through hoops sometimes to get their business and Cuba Gooding JR is no different with this famous scene

I hope you enjoyed those best sales movies clips.

If you want to learn how to do it right please check out our Advanced Sales Training or please contact us to discuss your Sales Training requirements. Our L&D team can help you to work out which course will be best for you or your team.

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Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training